Orphir Church & Bu

Orphir Church with Scapa Flow in the
Background

In the south of the West Mainland of Orkney, near the
Hoy and Flotta ferry terminus at
Houton, is a side road off the A964 complete with tourist signs directing you
to the Earl's Bu and Round Church. Natural curiosity leads you a short distance
along a single track road to a parking area at the Orkneyinga Saga Centre.

To get to the Earl's Bu and the Round Church of St Nicholas you
follow the path past the Saga Centre. The Bu was a manor house of the Norse
Earls of Orkney and dates back to the 1100s. It was made up of farm buildings,
a mansion and a drinking hall. Before you get your hopes up too far, however,
it's worth knowing that there isn't very much left of the Bu. A few courses of
foundations and some shapes in the grass, and that's about it.

It takes a little imagination to think of this as the place where,
according to the saga, Earl Haraldr died in 1127; to realise that the drinking
hall was the site of the murder of Sveinn Brestrope in 1136; or the place where
Earl Haraldr Maddadson hid from his enemies in 1154. The Orkneyinga Saga adds
names and imagined faces to the ruins and suddenly it becomes possible to think
of real people living and dying here.

There is more to see through the nearby gates in the churchyard
housing the remains of the circular church of St Nicholas. This was built in
about 1123 and is thought to have been modelled on the rotunda of the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

After the first crusade Earl Håkon of Orkney had been on
pilgrimage to Jerusalem to do penance for ordering the murder of Earl Magnus,
later Saint Magnus, on Egilsay on 16 April 1117. St Magnus's lasting memorial
was St Magnus Cathedral in
Kirkwall. Earl Håkon's
less enduring memorial was St Nicholas Church.

It was less enduring because in 1757 most of the church was
destroyed to provide stone for a new parish church nearby, itself also now long
gone. All that remains is the semi-circular apse and the circular markings on
the grass of the shape of the original church. You can see more than enough to
realise that St Nicholas's destruction in 1757 was a sad loss.

The surrounding churchyard is fascinating. As well as the church
itself, it houses a remarkable collection of grave stones and markers, all with
stunning views over Scapa Flow.

This is a slightly odd group of attractions: the remains of a
church that was knocked down to build another church that is no longer there at
all, and an Earl's homestead that is even less substantial on the ground. But
the blood of the Vikings flows through Orkney's veins and you see evidence of
them everywhere you look in these islands. The Orkneyinga Saga Centre coupled
with the relics of the Bu and Church help give focus and understanding to this
Viking influence.